At SPJIMR, many students go to villages under the Development of Corporate Citizenship (DOCC) programme. They spend six-eight weeks in rural areas tackling issues, from financial to environmental, in partnership with NGOs. “The students provide managerial inputs. The outcome is very good. They bring out rich documents,” says Nirja Mattoo, chairperson of Centre for DOCC at SPJIMR.

But this seems to be just the beginning as far as imparting socially sensitive business education is concerned. The Center for Business Education of US-based Aspen Institute is trying to take this forward with the agenda — preparing leaders for social and environmental stewardship. The India chapter of its Teaching Innovation Programme (TIP), an initiative to weave sustainability and community issues into mainstream courses, is working on devising a new curriculum for Indian management institutes.

Figures are scores out of 10; *Learning Experience ranks in BW-Synovate B-school survey 2009; **classroom teaching; IISWBM: Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management; AIMS: Acharya Institute of Management and Sciences; NITIE: National Institute of Industrial Engineering; ABA: Alliance Business Academy; NMIMS: Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies; IMI: International Management Institute

The Traditionalists The life of the man who transformed GE into one of the world’s most valuable companies — Jack Welch — no doubt would be a management lesson in itself. From Welch to Winfrey — the traditional case study method remains the dominant teaching methodology at the mecca of business education, Harvard Business School. And in India, it is a tool still extensively used by the “centres of excellence”, the IIMs, as well as others. “It is still one of the most powerful methods,” says A. Koshy, chairperson of the postgraduate programme at IIM Ahmedabad.

But the approach is fast changing from teacher-centric to participant-centric. Harvard’s Global Colloquium on Participant-Centred Learning is a fortnight-long programme that aims to help B-school teachers become more effective by learning from their own teaching. For the first time last year about seven management professors from India were also selected for the colloquium. And if it is Harvard, the focus is no doubt on teaching the case method and mastering case writing. Kavita Singh, professor of Change Management and Organisational Behaviour at Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) in Delhi, who went through this rigorous two-session course, says it has helped her tremendously: “I could not believe that with one case, you can keep the same group engaged for three-four hours and at the same level of interest.”

Koshy, who is also a professor of marketing, believes that innovation can be done within the classroom. He cites a simple exercise that he asked his students to do — to speak to three customers each before coming to class. When asked what they learnt from the experience, one student candidly said, “I learnt that I don’t know how to ask questions and I don’t know how to listen.” Is this innovative? “No,” says Koshy, “but this is what learning is all about.” So, while many management professors swear by more traditional teaching methodologies, others continue to devise elaborate ways to make learning by discovery a reality.

binu dot kwatra at abp dot in

(Businessworld Issue Dated 19-25 May 2009)